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01-019 "Altair: Firebrand"
2001, digital

The brilliant white sun Altair blazes down onto the surface of a rocky planet in this imaginary view. Nine times brighter than our sun, and hotter to boot, Altair has partly melted the landscape into seething pools of lava. A thin haze of dense gases hovers above this lifeless inferno. No worlds are known to orbit Altair - but they had best keep their distance if they do; Earthlike conditions are only found beyond what would be the orbit of Mars in our solar system, three times farther than we orbit our sun. Altair is known to rotate extremely rapidly - in just 6 hours. Our smaller sun takes nearly a month to spin on its axis. The rapid spin of Altair flattens it into a squashed spheroid just half as thick through its poles. Such rapid spin is considered by some a good indication that it never gave birth to planets in the first place, which may be just as well, since such hot stars do not live long enough to be a good mother to worlds like ours. In the sky, we see Orion the hunter, not much changed, as we are "only" 16 light years from home. Those who have a local star chart handy will be able to spot Earth's sun, however, a "second magnitude" star near the left side of the view. The fact that our sun is impossible to distinguish without such a chart is a humbling reminder of our place in a vast universe.

Chris Butler